It wasn't a prime minister, education secretary, Ofsted chief or even a teacher who uttered the most prophetic words about the future of schools at the dawn of the decade, but Tony Blair's official spokesman. "The day of the bog-standard comprehensive is over," Alastair Campbell declared in 2001.

It was the moment Labour switched its focus from primary to secondary schools; when specialist schools and academies, trust schools, co-operative schools, federations and even parent-run free schools, which the Conservatives are proposing, began to replace the comp. In 2010, it will be hard to spot a "bog-standard" school.

The Blair government's analysis was that comprehensives failed to cater to individual abilities, and an election-friendly promise was made to offer choice to parents and a tailored education to children. Labour's solution lay in private sector involvement, and creating a market in schools whereby parents could vote with their feet, forcing up standards.

Some consequences of the reforms have been surprising. Rather than radical new teaching styles, a trend towards a more traditional education has emerged: rigorous approaches to behaviour, the rise of the uniform, increasing setting in schools and thorough testing.

Money flowed into schools. By 2008, the schools budget was £31bn a year – up 56% in the last decade. The number of teaching assistants rapidly increased, while workforce reforms guaranteed teachers hours out of class for preparation time and ruled they no longer had to do routine admin work. The biggest rebuilding programme of schools since the Victorian era was launched, though its progress was slower than planned.

Throughout the period, school results improved. In 2000, 40.7% of pupils got five good GCSEs including English and maths by the time they turned 16. Last year, 47.3% did. In this year's Sats, 80% reached the expected level in English by the time they finished primary school, while 79% did so in maths. In 2000, those figures were 75% and 72%, respectively.

But under pressure from league tables, targets and Ofsted, some perverse incentives emerged. Schools rushed to introduce more vocational qualifications to allow them to climb the league tables. When maths and English were included in the league table measure, schools began entering children early for those exams, then allowing them to drop the subjects once they had attained the all-important C grade. It also drove schools to focus on children on the C/D borderline at the expense of others. In Sats, the proportion of high achievers dropped last year as schools zoned in on those reaching the expected level.

Internationally, by some measures, England has slipped. The most recent OECD report suggests that while more money is being spent, progress is stalling.

In the classroom there have been quiet revolutions. In 2000, chalkboards were still in use, and teachers patched together worksheets with scissors and glue. Today, every class has a whiteboard, and teachers download worksheets or make their own.

And then there were the events. David Blunkett's spectacular rows with the Ofsted chief, Chris Woodhead. The crisis in AS- and A-levels in 2002 when 300,000 papers had to be remarked after Curriculum 2000 was introduced, and the resignations that followed.

Estelle Morris resigned, saying she did not feel up to the job after the A-level crisis, problems with the vetting of school staff and her intervention in a row over two excluded pupils. Ruth Kelly introduced wraparound childcare in schools, then rejected Mike Tomlinson's plans for the diploma to subsume all other qualifications, in what was seen by many as the only feasible plan to end the divide between academic and vocational. The jury is still out on the diploma that was introduced instead.

With the 2007 change in prime minister, and as Ed Balls was made schools secretary, there was a shift in education policy. The academy programme was reformed radically with a move towards universities, schools and even local authorities sponsoring academies, instead of individual entrepreneurs and philanthropists. Academies were made to teach the national curriculum and prevented from expelling too many pupils. Balls expanded his department to include children and families, bringing together education and children's services. The Sats crisis prompted the scrapping of tests for 14-year-olds, science tests for 11-year-olds, and a hint from Labour that it will move towards teacher assessment.

Now, the Conservatives are promising a massive expansion of academies, giving schools complete freedom from local control. If there's a Tory government in 2010, David Cameron's spokesman may well be echoing the words of Alastair Campbell 10 years on.